Exploring, drilling and completing hydrocarbon and other wells are generally complicated, time consuming and ultimately very expensive endeavors. As a result, over the years well architecture has become more sophisticated where appropriate in order to help enhance access to underground hydrocarbon reserves. For example, as opposed to wells of limited depth, it is not uncommon to find hydrocarbon wells exceeding 30,000 feet in depth. Furthermore, as opposed to remaining entirely vertical, today's hydrocarbon wells often include deviated or horizontal sections aimed at targeting particular underground reserves.
While such well depths and architecture may increase the likelihood of accessing underground hydrocarbon reservoirs, other challenges are presented in terms of well management and the maximization of hydrocarbon recovery from such wells. For example, during the life of a well, a variety of well access applications may be performed within the well with a host of different tools or measurement devices. However, providing downhole access to wells of such challenging architecture may require more than simply dropping a wireline into the well with the applicable tool located at the end thereof. Indeed, a variety of isolating, perforating and stimulating applications may be employed in conjunction with completions operations.
In the case of perforating, different zones of the well may be outfitted with packers and other hardware, in part for sake of zonal isolation. Thus, wireline or other conveyance may be directed to a given zone and a perforating gun employed to create perforation tunnels through the well casing. As a result, perforations may be formed into the surrounding formation, ultimately enhancing recovery therefrom.
The described manner of perforating requires first that the perforating gun be loaded with a number of explosive components, generally referred to as “shaped charges”. Shaped charge components usually include an explosive material mixture that is housed within a casing with a liner provided there-over. The explosive mixture is often a dry compressed material mixture that is configured to be detonated on-demand. Once the gun is individually loaded with a host of charges and delivered downhole to a targeted location in the well, the charges may be remotely detonated from the oilfield surface by an operator. Upon detonation, each shaped charge may perform similar to a ballistic jet in forming an adjacent perforation. Further, this manner of operation is enhanced by the liner over the explosive which may serve to tailor the performance of the shaped charge in terms of the resulting adjacent perforation.